Check out this sick video made by our very own Bruce Wilson

Goodbye Summer

We'll find a way to continue your celebration, there's a spirit that will last all year long. The adventures aren't over, they're just colder.

We miss you summer. Summer, when the only things warmer than the air are the sweet memories. Come back soon.

Tiny Blue Dot

Can we even begin to imagine what we are? Our tiny sphere means next to nothing in the cosmos perspective...the lives we live, the people we touch, the open sky we look at are all just tiny pieces to a puzzle that's bigger than we'll ever understand.



I wish I could reach out and touch every star in the sky, to know that what surrounds me is real. Will we ever reach a point that even the confines of this globe are too small for us to explore? The world is a mighty big place looking down, but as soon as your head tilts towards the sky the reality of how tiny we are sets in. I hope to never be too big for anyone else, higher than another brother...because no matter where you are in the world, something is bigger, something is further into the heavens. We are all equally small, hoping for a future that we may never get to, but that doesn't mean we shouldn't try.
We succeed only by our greatest efforts and reaching the standards we set for ourselves. When you realize how small everyone is, how can even the biggest man's words mean anything? It's ourselves that we are racing against, but we're moving forward together.

Cast off that demon

The Early Days

Check out the Old School album from back in the early days of TSM. This is Josh cranking out an uber classic in Little Cottonwood Canyon. 

Untitled from wilsonhansen on Vimeo.

Little Cottonwood Canyon is one of Utah's finest canyons for all disciplines of climbing, and because it's so close to the Salt Lake Valley, it's served as one of the oldest crags, and is a classic testing ground for any serious climber in Utah.  Bouldering in LCC is a unique and often frustrating experience for anyone that isn't used to funky granite pulling on greasy crystals and invisible slopers.  I wouldn't call myself a boulderer, but if I'm ever feeling too confident in my climbing abilities I just put on my small shoes and try to find the easiest way, up the hardest line to the top of a rock.  It takes patience, discipline, and ZERO pride.  This last week we've been checking out the younger area called 'White Pine', it's an area that still needs developing, and offers awesome bouldering!



The experience was beautiful, looking up at beautiful lines, and trying to beta out seemingly impossible moves is all part of the game. While bouldering is not my forte, I hope to become more well rounded as a climber and reconnect with the whole point of climbing...which is in my opinion, pushing yourself to your limit at the limits of the wild..breathing in the natural high that is life.



http://slabmatix.blogspot.com/p/words.html

To climb your best you've got to find inspiration, my inspiration can be found in the sick beats of Chuckford's Guitar...

Live and Create by ssmchuckb

Chuckford the Great

City Of Rocks

Standing Two Feet Below Your Belayer

Meat By-Product a 5.10a on slippery quiartzite. This had been my project for quite some time. Its a series of slightly over-hung finger locks with its tricky crux at the bottom. Just my style. I sent it a few weeks back and it became one of my favorites. On Saturday we decided to hit up Meat Wall again. I was able to use Meat By-Product as my warm up and encouraged Wil to climb it too. Feeling bold and amped from my project becoming my warm up I decided to try the line right next to it, Piece of Meat 5.11b.

I racked up and Wil clipped in. Lookin up from the groud and reading the light beta from the book I decided to bring nothing bigger than a #1 Camalot. Psyched and ready to go I chalked up and gave it a go. The bottom moves were big but fun, hard to find, but solid if you locked in well. about 25ft up you hit a crack with your left fingers that is one knuckle deep and two fingers tall. Leaning slightly to the left you have a right hand that is too big to get into for a jam, but way too huge for finger anything. This is where the slippery Quartzite come into play. Feeling sketched out only 5 ft above my last piece and my right hand is not feeling solid in any sense of the word I place a #4 TCU and take. For a first burn this went well.

Shaking out and chalking up I rest. I jam my right hand back into the small slippery crack and get my fingers back into the lock. Its a big pull from there to a right hand. Again, another big move to a small awkward horn with the left. Reseting my right hand to slopper with a crimp on the back I am able to bring my right foot up to match my hand. With the heel hook and hands set I pull up. 7 ft above my last piece Quartzite strikes again. My heel slips and my hands go with it.

Mid air I hear it, the high tension ping that only comes when a piece pulls from the wall.... Still mid air I know what it means. My mind flashes to the uneven sloped ground with softball sized rocks skattered about. But when I am able to bring things back into focus I see my feet, on the ground, my knees shaking, and my hands holding tightly to my figure 8. "I decked, I am on the ground, Im hurt." These are the only thoughts I can seem to process. These thoughts are abruptly disrupted by Wil's body smacking into my head. He's hanging 2ft above me and an the reality is that I am standing on the ground staring at my feet wondering why they aren't dangling...and with a queezy laugh told Wil to lower back down so I could thank him.

pc

The crew spent some time at the Puffer Lake recreation area just east of Beaver, Utah last weekend, setting up First Ascents and exploring the climbing potential in this area.

This is a picture of Mike Attempting the second ascent of "22 gun salute" 11b, under the watchful and helpful care of Peter.

Megan and the Roxinator smiling after a succesful orienteering nightmare back to the cabin.


Peter with the fist pump after his first ascent of "Frontal Lobe" 10d aptly named for his stream of 'reactions' after pulling a 200lb block off the route!

Words of Wisdom

from Michael Bangerter....

this is the first of many shorts meant to touch and inspire, Thanks Mike


New Project 2 from wilsonhansen on Vimeo.

This past week the crew climbed, surfed, and drove their way into the realm of epic trips...we left on Sunday night and made our way through the blazing heat of the desert to Taquitz and Suicide rocks in a little town called Idyllwild -climbed "Whodunnit" (a whopping 800 foot chunk of granite) and threw down an FA that connects with "Whodunnnit" about 400 ft up the wall. We named it "Miss Tery Route" mostly because when we signed into the logbook at the summit Mike mispelled mystery, and ended up writing the name of his favorite first grade teacher instead. A cold bath in the river, and a bowl of fried rice later we found ourselves visiting Grandma and Grandpa Wosen in Los Angeles to try to make our mark at the classic Stoney Point. Unfortunately the morning of was a tiny bit inhibited by Peter's Allergy medication that ended up knocking both him and Megan out for the day.

Mike and I did our best to climb a few boulders and call the day finito with a couple of burgers and a slacklining sess.

Thursday we headed to malibu state park and tried our luck on the steep volcanic boulders that make this area unique. It seems like on a trip of this length you'll occasionaly see disputes between friends even as tightly knit as the crew...and words will be carelessly thrown around that carried no malicious meaning...but can cut to the core...on the way to Malibu, Mike must have fallen victim to the suns rays, and slipped just enough to insult the morality behind the gear deals that Peter so graciously provides...Shocked at the carelessness of Mike, Peter vowed to never hook Mike up again! A harsh promise, but given the circumstances, understandable...Through tears Mike begged for a way to make it up, and in his infinite mercy Peter granted it to him. The ultimate belittiling of Mikes character would be neccesary, but in my opinion worth it, and justified. The chaco sludge toe kiss was required...as seen here...

Malibu ended up being really sick, we projected a ton of stuff each at our own level, and then came back Friday morning for the send. Mike looked especially good in his sending pants..

After Malibu it was off to San Diego for some glorious surfing and a stay with the lovely Lee Anne. She earned herself a seat with the crew. 12 hours seemed to whiz by in the glorious temps...and we were off again to find more desert rock. We ended up settling for a little outcroping of rocks by a rodeo ground not far from Victorville...it seemed like a miserable little place, but we managed to throw down some awesome FA's all named after subtle themes in the trip. "Shark at a sushi bar," "Secret Lover," and "Triple Dog" being some of my favorites.

A stop at the lovely Hard Rock Cafe for our midnight burgers put us at ease and on target for our 8am Sunday morning return...

I wish we could climb like this.

Teaser from the crew at Moes and Jtree

We're Back...ish...

Welcome to SlabMatix! This is the blog of our climbing and adventure crew, a group of friends that are always looking for the next big adventure. We dissolved for a while, but we're all trickling back in. Stay tuned for awesome updates, trip details, and tons of HD slab slapping vids.